[link|http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/international/americas/12canada.html?hp|Canada Looks for Ways to Fix Its Health Care System]

"..."If you are not bleeding all over the place, you are put on the back burner," Ms. Pacione said, "unless of course you have money or know somebody."

The publicly financed health insurance system remains a prideful jewel for most Canadians, who see it as an expression of communal caring for the less fortunate and a striking contrast to an American health care system that leaves 45 million people uninsured. But polls indicate that public confidence in the system is eroding, although politicians remain reticent to urge increasing privatization of services.
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Whitby officials estimate that 22,000 people here have no doctor at all, forcing them to go to emergency rooms at overcrowded local hospitals to wait in line for up to four hours simply to refill a prescription, get a doctor's note for an employer or care for their flu symptoms.

"It's like winning the lottery to get in and see the doctor," Mayor Marcel Brunelle said. "This is a very wealthy country. What happened to bring the situation to this point?"

It seems that the Canadian system is not all that it was cracked up to be.

it is much worse then that. In addition even those with a doctor have to wait a lot more then you do. From the article:

"The government statistical agency estimates that more than 3.6 million Canadians, representing nearly 15 percent of the population, do not have a family doctor. That remains better than in the United States, where an estimated 20 percent do not have a regular doctor."